Healthy lifestyle helps us age gracefully

Unveiling the New 50

The idea sounded so completely appetizing: The fountain of youth on your dinner plate. Imagine that, with a side of delicious wrinkle-busters. Who wouldn’t want to take just a little bite?

Celebrity nutritionist Oz Garcia grins when we ask if we can really nosh our way to facelift-like results at breakfast, lunch and dinner. When HealthyLife got its copy of Garcia’s new book, Redesigning 50: The No-Plastic-Surgery Guide to 21st-Century Age Defiance, we imagined a prescription for that kind of nutritional elixir

“I suppose it would be nice if we could sit down and do this in a single meal, but it’s not exactly quite that simple,” Garcia says. “It’s more about a lifestyle. How we eat and live on a daily basis.”

Dubbed “nutritionist to the stars” Garcia is the food guru who helped Oscar-winner Hilary Swank eat for her Million Dollar Baby shape. He has counseled Gwyneth Paltrow, supermodel/reality star Kimora Lee Simmons and celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai. Enticed by the idea that certain nutritional remedies could turn back time, HealthyLife took a seat at Garcia’s recent seminar at the Warren-Tricomi salon in Greenwich, where a group of women of a certain age gathered to hear his age-defying advice. (Warren-Tricomi founders Joel Warren and Edward Tricomi were contributors to Garcia’s book.)

Despite the title of his book, Garcia says he’s not necessarily opposed to plastic surgery, facial fillers and other cosmetic interventions. “I really think of those things as personal choices, but what I wanted to do was show the alternatives,” he says. “There are ways to look and feel better naturally with careful attention to lifestyle.”

A trim, handsome man who barely looks 50, Garcia immediately captured our attention by mentioning his age — 60. He says that revelation should not come as a total shocker. “I really believe our 50 — or in my case, 60 — is not our parents’ 50,” he says. He recalled a recent visit with family in Florida where his mother watched Garcia leave the house for one of his regular runs and commented, “Oz, when your dad was this age, he could not have done this. He was already broken.” “But it is different for us,” Garcia says. “We work out. We don’t smoke. We have better technology and knowledge about aging.”

And if we choose to, we can eat in a way that helps us retain our youthful vigor and appearance. “The way I look at food is that it can have a functional or dysfunctional affect on the body. It can affect our memory, our immune function and how we look,” Garcia says. “I think of food as supplementation, like you would a vitamin. It can affect the tone and texture of our skin, our hair, our body.”

Garcia, considered an expert on nutritional research related to life extension, is also interested in the topic of calorie restriction, which some research says can enhance longevity. Once a week, he semi-fasts on extremely light meals of fresh juices and a vegetable dinner. He also suggests eating fatty fishes such as salmon and halibut as many as five times a week. “But I know that’s not possible or even appropriate for everyone,” he says.

For middle-aged women Garcia makes a number of more attainable suggestions he says will help maintain the vestiges of youth and even extend longevity.

They include:

Eliminate or Reduce Sugar Consumption: “It doesn’t just make your kids crazy. Sugar in the grown-up diet is a really big deal,” Garcia says. “Sugar caramelizes in our bodies and destroys collagen and hair follicles. It also accelerates inflammation, which does all kinds of damage to the skin. The best way to think of sugar is: It’s aging.” It’s important to note that when Garcia refers to sugar he means forms present in baked goods, candies, soft drinks, juices, as well as the kind generated by carbohydrates such as white bread and pastas. If you’re craving something sweet, he suggests a small portion of dark chocolate (look for products at least 70 percent cacao) for its potent antioxidant properties.

Eat Probiotics: Garcia notes the term probiotics literally means “for life” and the benefits are true of foods rich in live, active cultures such as some yogurts and fermented foods, such as sauerkraut. Besides aiding in digestion, probiotics help the body absorb and process vitamins. One note of caution: Many popular yogurts containing live probiotic cultures contain lots of added sugar. “Buy plain and sweeten it with fresh fruit and chopped almonds,” Garcia suggests.

Fight Inflammation: Inflammation causes damages at the cellular level that can also impact the skin. Foods rich in antioxidants, such as brightly colored fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes and salmon, all contain potent ingredients that help fight it. So do fish rich in Omega fatty acids, such as salmon. Note: Garcia says that while he always prefers wild-caught fish to more affordable farm raised, “the quality of some farms is getting much better” and it may soon be a more worthy choice.

Diminish Oxidation: Over time there’s a natural “rusting” of the body that occurs in much the same way a machine wears, Garcia says. In the case of skin, oxidation damages our complexion when free radicals break it down and cause “micoscarring” which causes wrinkles, he says. Foods including blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries and vegetables such as tomatoes, red peppers and eggplant are all valuable for their rich doses of antioxidants, which fight off the corrosive effects of oxidation.

Since oxidation happens when food chemicals are exposed to the air; it’s also wise to pay attention to foods that are left out in the open, Garcia says. Even a sliced apple or freshly squeezed juice exposed to air for too long can oxidize.

Drink Green Tea Instead of Coffee: It gives a slight caffeine kick for those of us who need it but doesn’t tax the adrenal glands the way coffee does. Also it’s been shown to be beneficial for preventing two aging conditions: osteoporosis and its precursor, osteopenia.

Out of the Kitchen: Garcia is a proponent of regular body work such as massage to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood, which has also been shown to accelerate aging. “Doing these things won’t necessarily lift your skin
like a surgeon can, but not everyone wants or needs that,” Garcia says.

Cover that gray!

Fairfield County resident and renowned colorist Joel Warren contributed to the hair care chapter of nutritionist Oz Garcia’s Redesigning 50. Warren, co-founder of the Warren-Tricomi hair care empire, writes that color, done right, can truly be de-aging. “I think there are a few women — and I mean a few — who can pull off gray hair and look amazing. But for most women, good color can do a lot to help you look and feel more youthful.”

Warren, who often performs his color magic at Warren-Tricomi’s Greenwich salon, gave us some expert advice for age-defying tresses. Garcia added a few tips on optimal nutrition for beautiful, shiny hair.

Go Permanent, but Go Gentle: “People used to be afraid of color, especially because it contained ammonia and think it was so harsh it would ruin their hair,” Warren says. “There’s a new generation of ammonia-free dyes today that are so good they not only produce great, long-lasting color but can actually leave hair in better condition than before you dyed it.” He likes the INOA (which stands for no odor, no ammonia) system from L’Oreal and swears by INOA Supreme — for women with more than 70 percent grey hair — for excellent coverage and glossy, natural-looking results.

No Kid Stuff: While the shades of childhood should serve as a guide for your grown-up hair color, it’s not necessary to replicate our youthful shades precisely, advises Warren. “Our hair color changes as we age, so think about your natural color at 30 or 35 or 40; whatever age it was when you started to see those first few grays. Then, consider a shade no more than three shades lighter or darker than that,” he advises. Be careful with extremes: “Don’t go for a light blonde because that was your color when you were three. It will look like you’re trying too hard.”

Let There Be Highlights: “Highlights can do a lot to make hair look natural, but you don’t have to do a lot and the contrast doesn’t have to be dramatic,” Warren says. “Even a shade or two away from your base, you will get some contrast that will make your hair look unique yet very, very natural.”

Be A Little High Maintenance: Keeping up with graying roots, conditioning and maintaining cuts in tip-top shape becomes essential with age. A weekly moisturizing mask “is like a good facial for the hair” and should be added to your regimen as you approach 50; especially if you dye your hair, says Warren. He recommends products infused with Keratin, which can cut down on frizz that can crop up with colored gray hair. Look for natural ingredients such as walnut, olive and quinoa oil for an added moisture boost.

Keep it Clean: You can wash your colored hair daily, if you choose the right shampoo. Warren suggests looking for cleansing conditioners, such as one Warren-Tricomi is introducing this fall, which are paraben and sulfate free. These one-step products “are going to revolutionize the way we wash our hair,” he says.